The Curse
by loveandmagic9913
Summary: Secrets abound in Rosewood, always leading to detrimental results. When Hanna's family secrets come to surface they lead to the most deadly consequences anyone in the town has ever seen. It is up to Hanna to save everyone. Or will she choose to turn and walk away?
1. Chapter 1

_**The Curse**_

 **Disclaimer:** Nope, not mine.

 **A/N:** If you have issue with this story or any parts of it, too bad. I don't give a shit. This is literally just a reiteration of a dream I had. I happened to like it enough to write it down and share it with whoever happens to read it. I'm posting this in just the PLL section first, but it will become a crossover, and then I may change it if possible, but it mostly surrounds Hanna as all my PLL stories do. (BTW, I do love Haleb but I also really like the pairing you'll see here.)

 _Origin stories aren't all what they're cracked up to be._

I wanted to write that moment off as déjà vu. I'd been here before, I told myself, but even the lie couldn't tread water. No matter how bad it was before, it didn't compare to this. The blood covered the wall like an unfinished coat of paint and streaked down her neck and soaked through her silk blouse. More blood speckled the floor in a line to a small wooden bowl in the center of the room, filled halfway with more of the blood. I didn't want to look at her face. I didn't want to accept that this was what would result in her final moment. But I couldn't peel my eyes away from the letter pinned to her shirt, the letter stained with life giving red polka dots. I wiped at my eyes and kneeled in the blood pooling at her side and I unhooked the pin from her shirt and began to read.

 _Hanna,_

 _I am sorry you had to be the one to find Mona. I know you two were once_

 _best friends. But . . . I had to do what needed to be done. You'll understand soon_

 _enough. Maybe after a little while you'll accept it. I did this for you after all._

 _I have laid a curse on the town of Rosewood and all those in it, aside from_

 _you. You deserve so much more than what they've given you here. The rejection,_

 _the lies, the torment, and the abandonment. It has unjustly followed you in this town._

 _You are pure and sacred and deserve more than the scum who claim they love you. To_

 _teach them what they've done, they have 30 days left to survive. A deadly sickness will_

 _plague the townsfolk followed by other events that will paint the town red with their blood._

 _They deserve it. You can leave, finally walk away if you choose and never worry about them_

 _hurting you ever again. Or you can save them if you really want to. You have 30 days to break_

 _the curse, if you so choose. I know what I'd do if I were you._

 _P.S. Don't worry. Mona knew what she was dying for and she was proud for it. (I think.)_

I read the note at least six times in a span of five minutes. No signature. No inkling of an identity. I wanted to dismiss the curse. It can't be true. But I remember Ravenswood and everything Caleb told me of his time there. At the thought of him my chest burned, and I took a deep breath. I finally looked at Mona's face, and I brushed the bangs from her face. Her hollow eyes stared up at the ceiling, and I felt a whimper catch in my throat. I lifted my hand and lowered her eyelids. I sat back and let the tears escape my eyes with low sobs. I glanced around her childhood room but nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket, and first I ignored it but when it continued I retrieved it and answered it without looking at the name. "Hello?"

"Hanna? Is everything okay?" Alison asked.

"Mona's dead." I replied and wiped my nose on my jacket sleeve.

"What?" Alison shouted. "Hanna, where are you?"

"I'm at her house. Her mom's not home." I replied.

There was a jingle of keys in the background. "I'm coming to you. Stay there. Do you want me to call the others?"

I nodded and then realized she couldn't see me. "Sure."

"Okay. I'll be right there." Alison reassured me.

I nodded and hung up the phone before dropping it to the floor. I leaned back against the wall and cried as I tried not to look at the body.


	2. Chapter 2

_A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. –Oscar Wilde_

It is a curious thing. I never imagined I'd feel relief at the sight of Alison, but there she was passing through the door and remaining strong for me. The horrible sight must've shaken her, but if it did, she didn't show it. I thank her for that. She picked up my phone and put it in her pocket, and then she came to me. She lowered herself to my level, and like she was with a child, she spoke in a soothing tone, words that escape me now, but I remember the feeling that everything was going to be okay. That she could make it all go away. Maybe this was what made everyone love her so. Maybe it was something all my friends had . . . even Spencer. Maybe it was something I lacked. In that moment though, it didn't matter. She took me in her arms and cradled my head against her shoulder, and when I was ready she took my hand and lead me from the room and then from the house. I wasn't conscious of the blood matting my hair or seeping through my clothes and to the depths of my bones. I was only conscious of my friend leading me away from tragedy and into the arms of the other friends that had just arrived and were waiting for us on the lawn. Maybe this is what Jenna felt all the time?

The rest was a blur. Cops arrived. I'm not even sure who called, though my some part of me knew it had been Ali. She was the only one who shared any firm belief that the cops in this town might actually someday do somebody a bit of good. I was aware that they tried speaking to me, but I heard a familiar deep voice, maybe Toby; tell them that they'd collect my statement later. The things people must've thought. It should've sent me back to those five years ago where I ended up in prison for the exact same stupid godforsaken thing. But all I could focus on were the distant words some idiot onlooker spoke, "At least there's a body this time."

 _At least there's a body this time . . ._

That's what this town has come to. The questioning of whether a death is valid unless a lifeless body of someone's loved one is present. How fucked up. If I had any ounce of strength left to move, I would've found the bitch that said that and punched her. The moments I stood there hugged by Spencer and Aria, clutching Emily's hand, it seemed that time moved both too fast and too slow. As though the world were all moving through water and everyone else could hold their head up and stay afloat while I was left to drown on my own with no one to even notice my bubbled breaths reaching to the surface for help. What was happening? I wanted to step forward and scream for everything to stop. For time and space to just stop. For people to just stop. I needed everything to stop. To stop fading away and slipping through my fingers and falling through cracks no one even noticed. This town. This stupid godforsaken town was full of them. And now . . . and now I was left with a note crumbled in my hand announcing their demise. A demise they didn't even know was coming. A demise only I apparently held the key to bringing to an end.

Sorry, Rosewood . . . I'd save you if I could, but we all know you're fucked.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

 _Jason_

I opened the door to my office just as the school bell rang, and students filed wandered through the hall to their lockers and classes. Only seconds later, my sister, Alison and her girlfriend, Emily, and their friends Spencer, Hanna, and Aria turned up the hall to their lockers.

"Hey, Jason," Ali greeted with a wave as her and Emily passed me to continue to their lockers.

"Morning, Ali." I nodded. Aria, Spencer, and Hanna stopped at their respective lockers across the hall from my office. I started to turn back into my room when I saw Hanna open her locker and pull a flask from under a pile of books in the back and take a quick swig and put it back. I bit back my words and waited while they all gathered their stuff to go to class. The all flashed smiles as they passed me.

"Hanna," I leaned outward. "Can I speak to you in my office?"

The girls stopped and Hanna nodded. "Sure."

Hanna stepped past me into the room and sat on the couch against the wall, and her friends continued on to their classes while I shut the door. I shoved my hands into my pockets and sat on top of the desk. "So how long have you been keeping a flask in your locker?"

Hanna shrugged, "Since it became a problem when I had it in my purse."

There was her sharp tongue. I straightened my shoulders. "Hanna, whatever you're going through, you don't have to go through it alone."

She scoffed. "Is that the speech they gave you in rehab?"

"Hanna, I'm serious." I narrowed my eyes. "You're surrounded by people who love you and would do anything to help you."

"Really because out of all the people who surround me, so far you're the only one who's noticed a damn thing." She scooted to the edge of the couch.

"Hanna, I—."

She stood. "Look Jason, I get it. You used to be where I am today. You know the signs because you lived them. You want to help me. Hell, you're the school counselor now and an ex-alcoholic so it's practically your duty to help me, but I don't want help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a chemistry class to skip."

Before I could say anything else, Hanna was out the door, slamming it behind her. I shook my head and moved to sit behind my desk. I rested my head in my hands and scratched my scalp to calm my growing headache. The pain wouldn't subside, and a growing knot tangled in my stomach. I sat up and pulled open the bottom drawer of my desk and pushed aside a stack of pointless files to find a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels and a glass I kept there for emergencies. I pulled the bottle free from the drawer and twisted off the cap before upturning the bottle and taking a few long gulps of the smooth liquor that offered a comfortable numb throughout.


	4. Chapter 4

_We are not punished for our sins . . . but by them. –Elbert Hubbard_

There are few moments in life that are so jarring that they make you wonder if you're really awake or if maybe you've been stuck in a coma dream for longer than time can tell. The next morning when I woke up and joined Alison, Aria, and Ezra in the living room was one of them. The television was on the news and the reporter seemed to know to say those fatal words right when I crossed the threshold. "Overnight, the town has seen a mysterious outbreak of a new hyper-infectious bacterial infection that appears to carry symptoms of both Diphtheria and Tuberculosis. Patients began pouring into the emergency room sometime around ten-thirty last night, and so far they are not seeing any results with any types of medication. People continue to come to the hospital seeking help, and the numbers are escalating by the minute, with no end in sight. The mayor is already seeking help from federal offices and medical facilities, but with no word on a solution yet we continue to wait and hope for the best."

"It's happening." Aria stated as the screen switched to a commercial.

I plopped down on the couch next to Ezra, and he rested his hand on my shoulder in the only offer of comfort anyone could give.

Ali turned to me to speak, but there was a knock at the door and she rose to answer it. Caleb, Spencer, Emily, and Toby poured past her and into the living room.

"It's true!" Spencer announced. "The curse is real!"

"What are we going to do?" Emily asked.

" _We_ can't do anything." Ali answered and glanced at me. "The note said Hanna could break the curse. Not us."

The weight of their expectations all rested on me, and in one ridiculously over dramatic thought I wondered if the curse would allow me to kill myself. I wasn't a martyr though. Martyrs are usually nicer. What do you say though when you're in a room full of soon to be dead people when you know they got stuck with the world's worst idea for a superhero? Especially when all I wanted when I woke up was a plate of cheese fries and a tall glass of vodka?

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do." I admitted. Maybe then they'd stop looking at me.

Nope.

"Han, what do you mean you don't know what you're supposed to do?" Aria asked.

"I mean, I don't know!" I shouted and stood up. "I'm sorry, the bitch didn't leave an instruction manual when they murdered Mona. They just said I could walk away or I could stop it. No how-tos anywhere."

"Were you thinking about it?" Spencer asked.

I didn't answer at first. "I need to get some air." I stormed past them and onto the porch. They all followed after me. Of course they would.

"Hanna!" Spencer yelled and grabbed my arm. "Were you thinking about leaving?"

I started to turn on her, but I halted and so did everyone else when a familiar person pulled up the driveway and climbed out of the car. Just then I remembered whose shirt I was wearing and whose scent sung my senses off to sleep last night. _Please tell me these aren't his pants too._

We were all frozen in a sort of melodramatic telenovela-style pantomime as Jason DiLaurentis parked in front of the house and climbed out of the car.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Jason gestured toward the town. "The hospital looks like a scene in a zombie movie."

The threat pressed on my mind, and I rushed down the steps. I saw him start to take a step back as I approached, but then he put his foot back before the others could see. "Jason, you have to get out of here."

"I was only joking." Jason arched an eyebrow.

"No, I'm serious. You need to get out of Rosewood." I stated. "Everyone here is in danger, and if you stay here, you'll be in danger too. Just leave. Please."

"Yeah, take her with you since she was planning to leave anyways!" Spencer shouted.

"What the hell?" Jason asked.

I spun toward Spencer. "Spence, I wasn't thinking about leaving! Goddamnit! I wasn't even thinking!" My phone began to vibrate in the pocket of the sweatpants I was wearing and I took a quick step back from Jason and pulled my phone free. Jordan's name and face lit up the screen. I quickly selected answer and focused my attention on the ground and tried to ignore the stares coming from the porch and from the man at my right. "Hey, Babe. What's up?"

"Han, are you okay? I turned on the news and I saw what's going on." He greeted.

"Yeah, I'm fine. They're not letting anyone leave though for now so I won't be-." I stopped speaking when I heard what sounded like a woman's voice in the background . . . definite giggling. I glanced at my friends on the porch and avoided eye contact with Jason as I wandered forward hopefully out of their ear range. "Hey, where are you?"

"Oh, I'm at work." He answered.

I crossed an arm in front of my chest and rested my hand on my opposite forearm. "It's nine in the morning and a Sunday."

"Yeah well you know how I am. I had work that needed to be done, so I decided to come in to the office on Sunday." Jordan replied.

"Huh. Yeah. Of course." I wondered for a moment if maybe he fell under the jurisdiction of the curse as well. Another giggle sounded in the background and this time I could almost place it with the face of the Secretary that worked in another office down the hall from his. "Well I'm fine. I'll be here for a little while longer than I expected. I better let you get back to work though."

"Alright. Love you, Babe." Jordan chimed in his charming deep voice.

I pursed my lips and forced the words out. "Love you too."

I hit the end button and dropped my phone back into the same pants pocket before walking back over to the group with my arms crossed in front of me. "So where'd we leave off?"

"That was Jordan, right? Did you tell him anything?" Aria asked.

I shrugged. "No. He was too busy with his office mate's secretary; it didn't seem right to bother him."

"What?" Spencer shouted. Of course now she shows her protective side.

"Hanna," Ali started in the same motherly tone.

I raised my hand. "Don't. It's fine. I'm a big girl. We've got bigger things to worry about." I turned back to Jason. "Look, this is going to sound crazy. But some whacko put a curse on the town and everyone in it except for me. They murdered Mona, and they are the reason for this disease that's spreading through the town. Everyone has thirty days to survive unless I can figure out how to break the curse. Which, no surprise, I haven't the first clue. You weren't here when the curse was set so maybe if you leave now you won't be affected by it."

Jason's brow was furrowed with lines as he looked at me. He avoided my eyes and then focused on his sister on the porch behind me as he spoke. "I'm not leaving. It does sound crazy but so does my family history and you guys stuck with us through all that, so I'll help with whatever I can."

"Thanks, Jason." Ali smiled. "By the way, Hanna is staying with us for now."

He looked back down to me. "Okay."

I shrugged. "Yeah, at least until I can get up the nerve to face my mom and tell her that she's dying because of me."

"Let's get inside so we can eat and brainstorm." Ezra offered.

Everyone started inside the house, and Jason and I began to follow but we hesitated at the bottom of the steps while everyone disappeared out of sight.

"So why are you wearing my clothes?" Jason crossed his arms in front of him.

"Mine were covered in Mona's blood, and this just happened to be what Ali gave me." I began to cross my arms in front of my chest but I dropped them to my sides as soon I realized I'd be mimicking his stance.

"Ah." He nodded and glanced to the house and then back to me, nodding toward my left hand. "So you're engaged now?"

I gave a forced smile. "Not anymore. Seems he has a habit of cheating on me."

Jason nodded. "Well, it's his loss."

Before any more words could be tossed around, he turned and climbed the stairs and entered the house. I waited for a moment for my thoughts to calm and then I joined them inside.

 **A/N:** As I said before this was all just a dream I decided to write down and share. But in this, Jason never got with Hanna's mom because that would be disgusting.


	5. Chapter 5

_Curiosity is the lust of the mind. –Thomas Hobbes_

"I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a solution yet." I announced over the clinking of plates as Alison set the table.

"It's okay." Alison smile at me. "I'm not worried. I know you will."

"Really?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Of course." Alison kept her same steady smile.

I wanted to put a halt on everything and ask what she had done with the real Alison. Where was the girl that made me hate my existence? But I reminded myself that we were adults and we were growing up and changing. Even Alison was allowed to mature. I settled for a smile in return and offering a, "Thank you."

We fell silent for a moment, and I glanced into the living room where Jason read something on his laptop while sitting on the couch.

"You know I never really thought of it until now," Ali began in a low tone, almost a whisper. "But I think you and Jason would be good together."

"What?" I retorted a bit louder than intended and Jason looked up from the computer screen. When he saw everything was okay, her returned his attention to where it belonged. I looked to Ali. "Are you out of your mind? That's you and Spencer's brother."

"Yes, and that's why I think I'm allowed to speak my mind on the topic." Ali spoke as though she didn't always speak her mind. But then again, maybe she didn't. It was always difficult to tell what she was thinking or if what she was telling you was a definite and real answer. I feel bad for the poor bastard who marries her only because he'll never really know if she means it when she says not to get her anything for her birthday. Ali grabbed my arm and led me into the kitchen so she could return her attention to the food while she spoke to me. "Think about it. You both have anger issues and issues with letting people in. You both have a history of alcohol dependency and other recreational fixes, you with stealing and your eating disorder and him with weed. You both have parental abandonment and neglect issues. Your dad is a piece of crap that never treated you right, and really all of his parents have never treated him right either."

I shook my head and crossed my arms in front of me. "You're crazy, Ali."

"No, I'm not." Ali smiled. "And I know what I saw."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Ali pulled a pan of chicken out of the oven and sat it on top of a cooling tray. "I have to ask. Did something happen between you two? I watched the way you two were earlier, and I know something had to happen."

"Of course," I nodded. "Can't get anything past you."

"So something did happen?" Ali continued.

"Kind of." I nodded. "He was in New York and we ran into each other. It was a little after Caleb broke up with me, and we got a couple of drinks and we had a fling. It wasn't anything serious."

"I knew something happened." Ali beamed with a glowing smile. Her phone pinged and she picked it up off the counter. She turned it so I could see the screen. "Oh look at that, Dr. Rollins would like for me to meet him at the Brew so we can talk about something important. It looks like you two will be on your own tonight."

"Ali, no." I grabbed her arm and stared her down.

"Consider this my blessing." Alison whispered before freeing herself from me and starting to walk away.

"What about Spencer's?" I asked as a joke.

"She didn't have to live with his brooding and pain in the ass self growing up. Besides, isn't she with your ex-boyfriend?" She countered.

Before I could say anything else without causing a scene, she left the kitchen and traipsed through the dining room and into the living room where she told Jason she had to leave. Seconds later she was out the door and we were alone.

I have this recurring nightmare where I'm trapped in a room and the walls continue to move in on me. I'm told it's a stain on my psyche from the trauma I experienced five years ago in the doll house, that it is a way my brain handles anxiety. I have the same feeling in the nightmare as I did the moment Jason entered the dining room and stepped towards me.

"So we weren't that serious?" He asked.

"You heard us?" I pressed my hand against my face. My cheeks flushed red. This is the moment in my nightmare when the walls start to move. I dropped my hand. "Well we weren't serious."

"I was." He replied.

The walls would start to speed up now. "What? Your sisters are Ali and Spencer. There is no way we could've worked."

"It sounds like Ali thinks we could have." He crossed his arms in front of him.

How do I make the walls stop moving? "There's no way! Everyone leaves me eventually."

"You were the one who left, remember." His voice was steady. How does someone remain calm when walls are closing in around you? "And then you wind up engaged to some jackass named, Jordan. What's that about?"

"I had to. You would've eventually left just like everyone else." I had to stop the walls moving. I needed the chaos to stop. How do I stop it? And as soon as I asked myself the question, I realized I knew the answer. A distraction. I stepped close to him and began undoing his belt.

"Hanna, what are you doing? I'm trying to have a conversation." He grabbed my shoulders and tried to hold me still with his strong hands.

"And I'm trying to take your clothes off." I finished with his belt and then unbuttoned his jeans.

"Hanna." He said my name once, but it was all he had to do. He spoke in such a heavy tone that my hands froze above his zipper, and I looked up at him through the shade of my eyelashes.

In one look we traded more words than anyone could've ever said. He kissed me hard, and I kissed him back. He lifted me with ease onto the table and onto the nice place settings. With little courtesy for our surroundings, we tore each other free from our clothes and melded together in a passion that could only be birthed by frustration and raw need. After a moment we had to catch our breath and finally realized where we were.

"We should probably get to my room before she comes back." He brushed my hair away from my face and kissed me.

"Okay." I gasped a deep breath and nodded. "We need to grab our clothes."

"Well you were still wearing my clothes, so-." He remarked.

I rolled my eyes, and he kissed me once more before helping me off the table. We grabbed our clothes off the floor, and he led me to his room where we picked up where we left off.


	6. Chapter 6

_They've promised that dreams can come true - but forget to mention that nightmares are dreams, too. –Oscar Wilde_

No matter how relaxed you are in your sleep, there is always a moment where you are at risk for waking up for no explicable reason. The same could also be said about life, I'm sure, but that has never applied to me. I prefer to believe that if one wants something bad enough, they can make it happen. I just so happen to be surrounded by people who don't seem to want me bad enough, I guess. Even lying against the warmth of a familiar body in a comfortable bed, I can't shake the doubt I had in his words. Maybe that was what woke me. Maybe it was the dream of being lost and walking down a road at night and wandering off into a barren field, which I didn't need a dream dictionary to know the meaning. What happened to the nights of relaxing dreams about the beach and being rubbed down with suntan lotion by hot guys? I couldn't even remember if I ever had a dream like that. Either way I was defeated by my subconscious and left to lie awake while Jason slept to his heart's content next to me. I watched his sleeping face and I briefly contemplated waking him up so he could help me relax, but I dismissed the selfish impulse. I slid my right hand up the middle of the sheets and halted close enough to feel the body heat coming off his hand. That heat shattered any desires I had, and I pressed my eyes closed and rolled over before I could regain my senses.

I opened my eyes, expecting to stare at the door, but I froze as I found myself staring instead at a young woman who held a vague familiarity about her though I knew I'd never met her before. She had shoulder length blonde hair only a couple shades darker than my own, paler blue eyes that had a slight glint to them even in the darkness, and a long deep scar from the bottom of her left ear lobe to the corner of her eyebrow that met the bridge of her nose, marring her otherwise perfect heart-shaped face. A faint smile sat on her pursed lips and she looked at what looked like some kind of paper in her hand.

I sat up and reached behind me intending to nudge Jason awake until she spoke. "You know he had this picture of you in his nightstand?"

I glanced at Jason, but he hadn't budged.

"Oh don't worry." She waved her hand that held the picture before setting the photo on the nightstand and sitting next to me. "He can't hear this. No one can. Only you and me."

"Who the hell are you?" I asked.

"Jumping straight to the important questions, as always." She smirked. She shrugged. "I'm the one who did this for you."

"Well, take it back. I don't want it." I commanded.

"Sorry," she shook her head with her smile still in place and shrugged. "Dear, once a curse has been placed, it can't be taken back. It can only be broken. And this curse can only be broken by you."

"But why?" This would be the opportune time for the walls to come alive and start closing in on us all, but I didn't even need to look around to know that wasn't going to happen. My chest burned and I could feel a lump forming in my throat. "Why would you do this? I didn't ask for this."

"No, but I love you, Hanna. And these people don't know what they have with you." She leaned forward and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. She glanced at Jason. "Don't worry about him though. He hasn't hurt you yet, so he's not under the curse. But your fiancé is."

"I'm not going to leave them to die. I have to do something." I argued. "I can't do that to them."

"Why not?" She looked at me with a creased brow. She blinked and I saw the scar crossed her eyelid too. "Why can't you and the Brooding Prince just get in his car and drive into the sunset and live happily ever after?"

"Because we care about them. We can't just abandon them, especially when we know what that feels like." Somewhere in the back of my mind, Ali's words from earlier mocked me, but I told them to shut the hell up and focused on the situation at hand.

"But they hurt you. Both of you." The girl seemed so earnest in her words and behavior and it gave me an unsettling prickle in my skin.

"Everyone hurts everyone. It's life. You won't get through life without getting hurt by someone you love at some point. Some just get hurt more than others. You don't give up just because it's difficult." I explained.

She shook her head. "No. Not like this. I've seen the way they treat you. The way they think about you. They need to be punished for it."

"Who even are you?" I shouted.

"That's not important at the moment, Hanna. You should get some more sleep. If you really want to break the curse, you only have twenty-eight days left so you'll need to get started early." She stood and ran her hand over my hair like I was a puppy and she was the owner saying good-bye before leaving for a day of work.

"No!" I started to pull back the blankets before I remembered I was naked, and I settled for sitting straighter and hoping I could still be intimidating. "You still have to answer my questions! How am I supposed to figure out how to break your damn curse?"

She paused with her hand on the doorknob, and she glanced back over her shoulder. "Ask your mom."

Before I could ask anything else, my eyes opened and I sat up. It was just a dream. A bad dream. No girl was standing in the room. No, it was just me and Jason, who still slept. My body trembled and I folded up my legs and clutched them to my chest through the blanket. I scanned the room for her form until I lost count, and finally my shoulders began to relax until I glanced at the nightstand and saw the photograph of me laughing just where she'd laid it, with the same indent where her thumb had pressed. I took a deep breath and grabbed the picture and put it back in the drawer where she must've taken it from. I felt cool tears streak my face. When did I start crying? What was happening?

"Hanna?" Jason's voice was still gruff and weighted from sleep. "What's wrong?"

"She was here." I replied and clutched my legs to my chest again. "A girl . . . a woman set the curse and she was here. She came in here."

"What?" He jumped to a sitting position. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"I tried." I shook my head, but I still couldn't look at him. "She said she made it so you couldn't hear us. So no one could hear us. I tried to tell her to take it . . . the curse back. But she said, she couldn't. It could only be broken by me, and she did it for me, that she loved me. And you're safe, and if we wanted we could just leave them all, and I tried explaining why we couldn't. I tried to get through to her, but she wouldn't listen. She said they all deserved to be punished. And I tried to make her tell me how to break it, but all she said was to talk to my mom. And now I'm here, and I'm sorry I'm crying in your bed. I don't even know why I'm crying."

Jason sat there for a moment. If he spoke or moved, I wasn't aware. I let time escape without counting . . . without counting heartbeats, without counting breaths, without counting seconds. I felt lost. I flashed back to the dream I had moments before waking up to the young woman. I was back in that wide expanse of barren field. A black sky drooped above my head more like a solid painting with globs of paint too heavy for them not to fall under the spell of gravity, and the only light was that of pale white stars flickering between the cracks of the drying paint. I looked in all directions of the field, for anyway out or any sign of where I should begin, but I felt the desolation of fear expand in my chest and I wanted so badly to fall but my legs wouldn't give out. Warmth wrapped around my left hand and pulled me out of my reverie, and I found Jason holding my hand. I wiped my tears and he pulled me into his arms. Any tension I held subsided as he held me, and we eventually lay back down after my heart settled.

I faced him, and he pulled me close and kept his arm around me. "I just don't get why this is happening. I don't want anyone to be hurt or worse."

He didn't speak. Maybe he knew I just needed to think things through aloud and have someone listen. Or maybe he did a good job of pretending to care like everyone else. In the moment it didn't really matter to me. I was just glad not to be alone. He reached up and brushed my hair back from my face, and he let his hand draw a smooth line down my cheek to cup my chin before he leaned over to kiss me. It was intended to be a soft, sweet kiss, but it held a reminder of all I needed in one moment. I tossed my hand behind his neck and kissed him back harder, and he responded instantly. We moved so he was leaning over me, and I had both my hands around his neck with my leg curved up around his back.

We broke apart for only long enough for him to look down at me with his eyes, so unlike anyone else's in his family, with their own unending depth of emotion and pain that still manage to allow some shine of hope and something else I couldn't put my finger on rise to the surface. He brushed my hair back again and let his hand rest against my cheek, and the only words that seemed to come to my mind tumbled from my lips before I had a chance to examine them for propriety, "Can you just help me forget for tonight?"

And in every kiss and touch that followed, all was forgotten. He had my undivided attention and allowed my focus to be consumed by passion and the desires that permitted our every shared emotion to be felt but not heard or seen. And when we were fulfilled and laying in each other's arms ready to fall back to what hoped to be a blissful sleep, I briefly allowed a thought that I would've scolded myself for at any other time, that what a perfect moment we were in if the world were to end right then.


	7. Chapter 7

_The bigger the secrets, the bigger the lies._

Most people prepare for battle with meaningful traditions or naïve charms for good luck. I go about it differently: I spend the night having amazing sex repeatedly with the brother of two of my best friends and follow it up by wondering how I am to behave around everyone so they don't find out. Of course before I joined everyone in the kitchen, I thought to myself, _what the hell, they're all probably going to be dead in twenty-eight days anyways_ , but as I stepped up to Jason's side and pour myself a cup of coffee, I noticed that he acting no different than the day before. That made this easier.

"Good morning, Hanna." Alison chimed as she stepped in between us and poured the rest of the coffee into her mug. She glanced between the two of us with a faint smile on her lips, but she walked back to the table where our friends sat enjoying the breakfast she cooked.

I took a sip of my coffee and peered at Jason over the rim of my mug. "Good morning, Jason."

He nodded. "'Morning, Hanna."

I searched for anything to say but as he looked away and focused on the newspaper lying on the counter, all words dried up in my throat. _Maybe he doesn't want anyone to know._ I offered a simple nod in return and stepped around him to the group clustered around the kitchen table. I paused at the edge of the counter and set my mug down. "Okay, so I know where to start."

Their attention turned to me, and I felt Jason's eyes on my back as I began my brief albeit a bit contrived explanation, "Last night, when I was sleeping _alone_ , I woke up to a young woman in my room."

Alison frowned and looked behind me as I spoke, but she silenced herself with a long sip of coffee.

"Why didn't you call me? I would've had someone from the station come over and-." Toby's voice was only a few octaves lower than a shout.

I raised my hand. "I couldn't. She is the one who created the curse, and I don't know what she's capable of but she made it so no one could hear us."

"Well if you were alone, then no one would be able to hear you anyways." Spencer argued.

"People were still in the house," I answered maybe a little faster than I should have. "Anyways, I tried to convince her to stop the curse but she said that she couldn't that I was the only one who could break it. She refused to tell me anything about how to break it, and said that I needed to talk to my mom."

"So you're going to talk to your mom today?" Emily asked.

I nodded. "I need you guys to go with me. I don't know if I can talk to her about this on my own."

"Of course." Aria agreed. "Was there anything else that the woman said?"

I hesitated, feeling both Ali and Jason watching me from their respective spots in the kitchen, and I shook my head. "Nothing else really."

Ali sat her coffee on the table. "Hanna, can I talk to you for a moment?"

I sighed. "Sure."

Alison stood, and I followed her into the hallway off the living room. She faced me and spoke low enough so no one could hear us. "What are you doing? Are you ashamed of my brother?"

"What?" I crossed my arms. "No. I was ready to air it all out, but he's acting like nothing happened. I don't want to go against anyone's wishes."

Alison rolled her eyes. "Well then you and he are both acting foolish."

I shrugged. "So he doesn't want to be with me, big deal. He's definitely not the first guy to make that decision and he won't be the last."

She scoffed, "Hanna, you can't-."

"Ali, I'm sorry, but thank you for trying. But right now I have more important things to take care of." I turned and went back into the kitchen. I avoided looking at Jason and focused on my friends as Ali rejoined the room. "I'm ready to go whenever you guys are."

"Hanna, you should eat something before you go." Aria stood from the table and carried her plate to the sink.

The thought of food made my stomach turn and I resisted the urge to make a face. "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

No one pushed me, but a quick look at Ali's face told me she didn't approve. I ignored it and finished my coffee, and then waited while the others got ready to leave.


	8. Chapter 8

_Secrets are like tumors. They grow worse if you ignore them._

My mom was sitting at the island drinking a cup of hot tea when we arrived and let ourselves in. She looked at us with raised eyebrows, but before she could say anything, she let out a harsh cough into a tissue. I knew instantly that she had contracted the sickness, and I flinched as we witnessed her cough a few more times. My chest ached, and I felt hot tears sting my eyes. A strong hand rested on my lower back, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Jason standing behind me. No one else seemed to focus on us, and I took the moment to offer him a grateful smile.

"Mom, are you okay?" I was finally able to ask with his strength supporting me.

"I'll be fine." She reassured me, but I could see the doubt dimming the light in her eyes. "It's just the cold that's going around."

"It's not a cold, it's-." Spencer started, but Ezra shot her a look, and she fell silent.

"I'm sure you'll feel better in a few days, Ms. Marin." Ezra offered.

"Thank you." She took a sip from her tea and then looked at us. "What are you all doing here?"

My friends looked at me, but Jason didn't step away or drop his hand. I took a deep breath. "Mom, I have to talk to you."

"About what?" She asked.

I reluctantly stepped forward and sat next to my mom. I pulled the note from my pocket and handed it over to her. "This was pinned to Mona's body when I found her. I had a visitor last night who told me I should talk to you."

It would be hard to say that the color drained from her face considering she was already pale from the sickness, but as she read the letter, she turned so white someone could've thought she was dying. Perhaps that is what made her reaction so startling as she tossed the letter on the counter and declared, "it's not real."

"What?" There was no way I heard her right.

Even as she spoke, she wouldn't completely look me in the eyes. "It's someone messing with you, Hanna. Curses aren't real."

"Then how do you explain the fact that everyone is sick?" I asked in a harsher tone than I expected.

"It's called an epidemic, Hanna." My mom coughed again into her tissue.

"No, it's not like this. It's something else, and you know it. Someone put a curse on the town and I need to know how to break it, and I was told you can help me." I held firm in my cause, but I tried to keep myself from yelling.

"Hanna, no." No argument. Nothing. That was her only response.

I grabbed the tissue from her hand and tore it open to reveal the blood stained phlegm. "Mom, you're dying! You're dying because of me! You have to tell me whatever it is you know so I can help you!"

My mom sighed and rested her hand against her forehead. "Okay. Fine, but not with them here."

I glanced at the group behind me and turned back to her. "We both know they'd just listen in. Besides, I'll just tell them everything anyways."

She sighed again. "Okay." She nodded and stood. I watched my mom walk to the table that always stood in the hallway, and she unlocked drawer with a small key off her set of keys that lay on the tabletop. She pulled out a yellow envelope and returned to her seat. She handed the envelope to me and nodded. "Open it."

I was hesitant at first, but I bent the prongs and folded the opening back. I pulled out a stack of colored envelopes like those that typically held cards, a photograph, and a tiny pink hospital ID bracelet. First I sat the cards on the counter and I looked at the photograph showing two tiny babies side by side, and then I looked over the hospital ID bracelet and read the name, Megan Ann Marin. I looked up at my mom. "Mom, what is this?"

"Well first, that's you and your twin sister. She died shortly after you two were born. You girls were two months premature, and they told me and your dad that you both had weak lungs and hearts and they weren't sure if you'd survive but that they'd do whatever they could. They took you two from the room and had you hooked up to machines and placed in incubators. Six hours later, the doctor and a nurse came to the room with you in your incubator and they shared the news that your sister's lungs collapsed and she died seconds before they were set to bring you both into the room." My mom's eyes looked flushed, but she didn't let any tears escape.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought to myself that I could use a strong hand to hold me up. I wasn't aware that I had been crying until I heard Jason speak up from the group behind. "Guys, let's give them some privacy."

I wiped at my eyes as Alison spoke, "But she said-."

"Ali, come on. Let's at least go to the living room." Jason reinforced his command.

Everyone else filed out of the room, and Jason stepped next to my chair and rested his hand on my shoulder. "Let us know if you need us."

I nodded and wiped my eyes again and looked at him. "Thank you."

He hesitated for another moment before dropping his hand from my shoulder and stepping out of the room.

I turned back to my mom. "Mom, why are you waiting to tell me this now?"

"Because it's part of a larger, more complicated story." She appeared to take a deep breath. "Do you remember what I told you of your grandparents?"

I nodded. "I remember you telling me that they weren't good people, and we'd never have them in our lives."

"Well they aren't. But it's more than that." She wrapped her hands around her mug as she spoke. "Our family doesn't come from Rosewood or anywhere near here. We are actually from a small town in California, and our family has a lot of history there. They are actually the founders of the town along with five other families. Some of the families have broken away from the old pacts and traditions, but our family wasn't one of them. When you're born into our family the only concern is furthering the family line with the strongest power."

"When you say power, you mean-?" I began.

She took a deep breath. "Our family is . . . we're witches, Hanna."

"What?" I shouted.

"Let me continue." She raised a hand. "As soon as you're born into our family, your parents begin to scout for the person you're planned to marry, and when they find that person, it's set in stone. There's nothing you can do to convince them otherwise, and you grow up your whole life knowing that you're going to marry that person. Your grandparents assigned me to marry a man who could give the devil a run for his money. He was very abusive to me in our relationship, but I didn't think I could leave. If I went against my parents, I wouldn't have anything left. But one day, I discovered I was pregnant and I realized I had to leave no matter what because I couldn't allow my child to be raised in that type of household. That was when a young, wealthy man, who happened to be your dad, drove through town, and I happened to run into him. We had an instant connection and fell in love, and he asked me to leave with him. I jumped at the chance. No one knew I was pregnant. We eloped and a shortly after I told him I was pregnant and let him believe it was his. We moved to Rosewood to start our future together as a family, and Jessica DiLaurentis sold us this house. Soon after moving here, we discovered it was twins and then we had you and your sister."

"Wait . . ." I shook my head. "I don't-. Why?"

"There's more." She sighed. "The cards. On your first birthday, I found it in the mailbox, but there wasn't a signature or return address. Every year on your birthday there was one in the mailbox. I did my best to hide them, hide all this. One year your dad checked the mail shortly before your birthday, and he found the card that was sent that year. He'd already been suspicious that you weren't his, and when I couldn't give a sufficient answer for it, he demanded a paternity test. I refused, so he got his lawyer involved. I needed a lawyer and a way to keep this from getting out, so I contacted Veronica Hastings. I told her everything except for the witch part, and she promised to help me. I don't know what she did. We never even went to court, and he dropped the demand for a test. But a month later he left us anyways for his current wife, and he filed for divorce."

I fought against the lump in my throat trying to send me into a tear-filled fit. "So he did leave because of me?"

"No." My mom tried to take my hand, but I jerked it away. "He left because he was a coward."

I shook my head. "Were you ever planning on telling me any of this?"

She hesitated. "I was originally, but after the stuff with the person stalking you and your friends, I thought it was best to just let you live your life happily. Why add more heartache?"

"Because it's the right thing to do. Because I deserve to know who I am." I argued. "Is Spencer's mom the only person who knows?"

Her shoulders deflated. "No. So did Jessica."

"Jason and Ali's mom knew?" I yelled.

She nodded and continued. "Since she was the person who sold us the house, she was the only one I really knew when you were really young. She came over sometimes and brought Jason and Alison most of the time. When you were about four, you kids were playing in the backyard while we talked in the living room. We thought Ali was with you, but she snuck off and was snooping around the house. We went to check on you guys, and when her brother told us she went inside, we went looking for her and we found her in a hall closet. She found this envelope and was going through it. She asked where your sister was, and I lied and said you never had a sister. Later, when Jessica and I were alone, I told her the truth, and she said that she understood and wouldn't tell anyone."

"Wait!" I snapped and jumped off my stool. "Ali knows."

"Hanna, you girls were four. I doubt she remembers." She reasoned.

I recalled the story she told me one Halloween about two twin sisters, and I shook my head. "No, she does." I tossed the picture and bracelet onto the counter and stormed into the living room. Ali was already stealing herself with her eyes wide, and the room was filled with enough tension to choke a smoker as everyone stared at us. "Ali, did you know?"

"Hanna, I-." She began with her hands raised in surrender.

"Did. You. Know." I demanded.

"Yes." She admitted.

"Ali?" A few of my friends echoed each other, but I didn't have the time to focus on the distinction between each one.

"So that story you told me, what was that?" I yelled.

"I tried to help you. I thought if I dropped hints you'd start to ask questions." Ali's shoulders rose with her anxiety.

"How dare you?" I snapped. "You knew all this time and never once told me? You were supposed to be my friend! Who did you tell? Anybody?"

"No! I didn't tell anyone, I swear!" Ali waved her hands. "I never even wrote it in my diaries. I didn't even know anything. Just that your parents had a picture of you and another baby in the hospital and a bracelet for a baby girl who shared your birthday . . . and that Jason had a crush on you when we were little kids."

"What? Ali!" Jason shouted.

"You brought her flowers from our garden every day we came to visit." Ali glanced up at him.

"Ali!" I shouted and then shook my head. My shoulders slumped and I let out a deep breath as tears started to slip from my eyes again. "Whatever, it doesn't fucking matter. I've got to get some air." I started to walk to the door and then stopped and turned back to the room. "Are there any more secrets I need to know about my life?"

"Hanna-." Ali started.

I pointed at her. "No. You don't get to talk to me right now."

Before anyone else could speak, I stepped outside and slammed the door behind me.


	9. Chapter 9

_How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing? –John Lennon_

I failed to keep track of the time after I left my mom's house. I even failed to stay in the yard. I'd sat on the porch for a handful of seconds before I decided it was too much for me at the moment and that I needed to escape. I left and now I found myself sitting outside Mona's house with a bottle of whisky in hand. It was the easiest solution. I needed to get out of my head, numb the emotions and dilute the words, so that I could finally breathe. I don't know how long I had been sitting outside her house, and the walk from my childhood home to the liquor store and then the childhood home of my dead ex-best friend all seemed blurred in my head like maybe this was another dream and I'd find myself lost in an open barren field only to wake up lying next to Jason in his bed after our night together.

I watched the house from across the street, and in my peripheral view I could see a familiar car park at the near curb. My phone vibrated repeatedly and I pulled it from my pocket to see Jason's name light up on the screen. I selected answer and held the phone to my ear. "You going to yell at me for telling off your sister?"

"No." Jason replied. "Everyone is freaking out since you left though."

I turned and looked at the car, clearly able to see Jason was alone in his vehicle. He was looking back at me, but I didn't speak.

"A few of them were thinking you left the town completely. Us guys split up to look for you. The girls stayed behind with your mom in case you came back." Jason explained.

"How did you know where to find me?" I spoke into the phone while looking directly at him down the street.

"Because it's the same place I would've gone. You even had the same idea with coping as I would've had." His eyes lowered to the bottle of whisky in my right hand.

I shrugged. "Yeah well I'm not that strong."

"That's not true." He stated. "You've been through hell, and you survived and you haven't let anything stop you from achieving your goals."

"This is different." I lowered my head and stared at a line of ants crawling along the sidewalk.

"I know. But you're not alone in this," Jason said.

I watched him at a distance and counted my heart beats as they slightly sped up at his words. At my twenty-third heartbeat, I stood and hung up and capped the bottle of whisky, and I walked over to his car and climbed in the passenger's seat. "I wasn't going to leave town."

"I didn't think you would." Jason replied and put the car in drive.

"I did think about it though. You and I are safe. We could just drive off now and never look back. It was tempting after I first left, but I couldn't even if I wanted to." I slumped in the seat and propped my knees up against the dashboard.

"You never seemed like the type to run from your problems." Jason drove slower than normal, but I didn't remark.

"I don't run." I shrugged. "Well maybe I did once or if I'm being chased by your late maniac sister . . . no offense."

He chuckled. "So do you want to go back and see what else your mom has to say?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I don't really have a choice, do I?" I sat up and took a deep breath. "Can I ask you a question?"

Jason glanced at me and then looked back to the road. "Okay."

"This morning, why did you act like nothing happened between us?" I contemplated taking a drink from the bottle of whisky, but I decided to leave it.

"I . . ." He began and stopped as we pulled onto my street. He parked only a little way down from my mom's house, and he turned to face me.

I shrugged and picked at the cap of my bottle. "It's okay if you don't want to act like anything happened, but I was just wondering because Ali was-."

"Hanna," He took a deep breath. "I like you a lot. I do. I have for awhile. I did when we were little kids, but I think that died some when our moms stopped spending time together and when you and Ali were friends in school, I was dealing with a lot of demons so I kept to myself a lot. I noticed you a lot when our paths crossed through the chaos with Ali's disappearance, but that's not something you can say or do anything about especially since your heart belonged to Caleb, and for a little while I may have had feelings for Aria but they might've been a misplaced distraction. But when we ran into each other in New York and you let me take you to dinner, I thought things finally fell into place. I liked you a lot then while we were together for those few months, and it never really went away even after you left. But there's a lot going on right now, and I don't want to put more pressure on you, especially since you still seem upset about Spencer and Caleb."

"Jason," I sighed and sat the bottle in the floorboard, and I turned towards him.

"Just let me finish." He rested his hand on my bare knee. "Adding more onto you with everything you're dealing with, it's selfish and that's something I try not to be. And Ali tried to give me the same lecture she gave you before I came to look for you, but we're adults. We can figure this out ourselves, but I want there to be no pressure or selfishness."

I glanced down at his hand on my knee and rested my hand on top of his. I thought of all the things I wanted to say and all the things I should've said in New York, but the words felt too heavy in my throat. I resolved to respond with a simple, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He gave a small nod and turned to drive the rest of the way to my mom's house. As we parked in front of the house, I felt the impending existential cloud of dread and fear hanging over me when the conversation from before collapsed over me. I shook my head. "I don't think I can do this."

"Hanna, hey," Jason said and caught my hand in his. "You're not doing this alone. I'll be right there with you, and so will Ali and the others. We're not leaving you."

I nodded, but the cloud didn't evaporate from my atmosphere. "Is this what it felt like for you when you found out who your real father is?"

He looked at me with his soft eyes. "It's probably close, but I don't think any two people feel the same ever. I think everyone feels and experiences things in their own way, and some feel them deeper than others. But I imagine it is similar."

A small laugh escaped my throat along with the tears slipping from my eyes before I could stop them. "I guess this is one more thing we can add to the list of things Ali said we have in common."

He smiled and squeezed my hand. "Come on. Let's go inside and find out everything you needed to learn here, and then we'll go get a bunch of food."

I nodded. "Okay."

We climbed out of the car, and I took Jason's hand as we walked up to the house. He opened the door and as soon as I stepped inside Ali rushed to me and wrapped me in a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Han." Ali spoke into my hair. "I should've told you or done-."

I released Jason's hand and hugged her back. "It's okay. It wasn't you or anyone else's place to tell."

"Hanna," Spencer, Emily, and Aria joined us in a group hug.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked.

"Where'd you go?" Aria stepped back and looked up at me with her big eyes.

"I was so worried you were leaving." Spencer ran her hand over my hair.

"I'd never leave you guys like that." I shook my head and took a deep breath. "I've got to finish this conversation with my mom."

"Do you need us to go with you?" Aria asked and I nodded.

I glanced over my shoulder, and before I could even ask the question on my mind, Jason nodded. I lead the way into the kitchen, and found my mom still seated in the same spot. I sat across from her again, and the girls hovered around me while Jason stood behind me, close enough that I could feel his presence.

"I'm sorry, Hanna." My mom's frown deepened. "I know I should've told you a long time ago, but I never knew when the right time was or how to even start the conversation."

"It's okay." I nodded. "Do you know what happened to my real father?"

My mom nodded and glanced to her hands and looked back up. "The cards stopped a few years ago. I always suspected that they were from him, and I was worried he was coming to find us. So I did a little looking into him, and I discovered he'd died that year the cards stopped. He was murdered, and a lot of people in the town suspected it was his son."

"His son?" I interrupted before she could continue.

She nodded. "He married another woman and they had a son named Isaac. His wife died though and he raised the boy on his own. When his son was called into question, it was argued that his father . . . your father abused him and that if he had killed him it was in self-defense, but no charges were ever brought against him. I was actually thinking about reaching out to him and thought that maybe that would be a way to tell you everything, but when I called the home of his last known guardian, she said he left town after one of his friends died."

"So I have a half-brother out there somewhere in the world." I spoke aloud, but it was mostly for me. I thought for a while over everything, and I finally addressed her again, "So how do I break this curse?"

My mom coughed into her tissue and then pushed her hair back from her face. "Well curses are all different for each person who sets them. If it's one on the whole town though, it's going to be extensive to break. It's not just going to be one simple step and everything is fixed. First the curse is centered on you. There's a common thread that links you to wherever events take place. Then the person who laid the curse could've accomplished it by leaving a hex bag or a similar totem at specific places, and if enough are laid or they were strategic in their placing then it could cover the entire town. The key is to find where the totems or hexes have been placed and breaking them and cleanse and consecrate the area where it stood."

I arched an eyebrow. "And how do I do that?"

She coughed a few times into her tissue and began wheezing when she breathed. "I'll show you if you come back over tonight. I have to get some rest."

"What do I do while I wait?" I asked. "We only have twenty-eight days before everyone dies."

"Try to find where the hexes are laid. That's the hardest part of all. Once you find out where they are, it's all easy after that." My mom explained.

I nodded. "Okay, we'll try to find them. We'll be back tonight though." I stood and kissed my mom on the forehead and gave her a hug. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Hanna." She hugged me back, and I followed the girls out of the house with Jason close behind me.


	10. Chapter 10

_It's not about the pieces but how they work together._

Spencer's family's home was always a familiar one to me. We'd spent just as much time here growing up as we did at Ali's house, and I spent only slightly more time with everyone there than at my own house. It was the way we all worked as friends. Our homes became each other's homes and so did our families. Of course in some cases that was a little more literal with the way Spencer's father had an affair with Ali's mother, resulting in Jason, who I had a fling with in New York and recently re-lit that fire. So it only became second nature for us to overtake her house and begin our search for the hexes. Aria and Spencer contacted the other guys, and they met us there, and soon we were all sitting in the living room brainstorming. Jason sat between Ali and I on the chaise lounge, and I tried not to sit too close so as not to arouse any intent or ideas. Emily sat in the floor next to Ali, and Spencer, Caleb, and Aria sat on the couch opposite us while Ezra and Toby stood. Spencer had her laptop opened on the coffee table and was typing in any word related to 'curse' or 'hex' she could think of to find a solution, but her efforts were fruitless.

"Well your mom said that they should be placed at places where events happened. Like it matters where they are." Ali explained.

I thought for a moment and then looked to Spencer. "Can I borrow that? I need to look up something."

"Sure." Spencer spun her laptop around.

I leaned forward and typed my dad's name into the internet search bar along with his wife's name. He came up on the first try along with his address and telephone number. I glanced up, intending to ask for a pen and paper, but I was interrupted.

"Your dad still lives here in Rosewood?" Ali called out.

"Yeah and in a much nicer house than the last one." I gave a one-shouldered shrug with my response. "I guess paying for Kate's college didn't exactly break the bank as was his reason for why he couldn't afford to pay for mine."

"Sorry, Hanna." Aria said and reached across the coffee table to touch my hand.

"Don't be," I said with a side nod. "For all we know Kate's degree didn't amount to much and she's still living in their house and mooching off them."

"We can hope." Spencer commented with a small smile.

"Okay, I need a pen and paper, a map of Rosewood, and a ruler." I announced and stood up.

Spencer left the couch and grabbed everything I asked for.

"Why? What are you going to do?" Emily asked.

"You forget that I started reading mystery and crime novels," I replied as I stood and everyone followed me to the kitchen.

Spencer unfolded the map on the kitchen counter and handed me everything I needed. I walked to the head of the map and stood next to Jason maybe a little closer than intentional, and the others clustered around the sides of the map. I wrote out my dad's address on the piece of paper along with Mona's address, my mom's address, Radley's address, Spencer and Alison's addresses, specifically for the barn that divided their property line.

"These are addresses where important events in the last five years happened and my dad's address." I then jotted down a couple more important addresses: the high school, the police station, Emily's house, Aria's house, and the cemetery. "These are other important addresses that hold a little less significance than the others."

I slid the paper to Jason and leaned over the map. "I'm going to find and plot the addresses on the map. I'll need you to read them off to me."

Jason nodded and leaned close enough so I could feel his skin arm grazing against mine. He called out my dad's address first, and I looked for it on the map and plotted the point when I found it. Then he read off Mona's address. I found it quickly and marked it as well. I began to move to my mom's address and mark it before he could read it, and then he read off Radley's address and I marked it. Each time I moved to mark a point, it put Jason closer to me but I was growing less and less aware as I became more focused on the activity. That was until I heard Caleb ask Spencer, "What's going on here" in what was supposed to be a whisper.

I glanced up for only a second but didn't stop plotting the points as Jason continued to call them out, but I listened as Spencer asked for clarification, and Caleb asked again, "Between them. What's going on?" I realized at that moment another reason why Jason might've had reservations and that was the possibility that I could hurt him . . . again. It was not the time to have any epiphanies or even contemplate anything in my less than stellar romantic life, but the thoughts and doubts wouldn't be silent. I remembered our brief relationship in a haze, like it was caught in the rain like we were when we ran into each other in New York, the night that started it all when he asked me to dinner and I agreed, through every night went spent together in ending with the night I walked out without giving any notice. I had my reasons, but then again, everyone does, and they never seem worth it to the other person nor sometimes even by the person making the excuses. I had been going about this worrying that I'd be hurt again. I forgot that he'd been through similar pain, and someone could think that there is a chance I'd be using them to make Caleb jealous or as a distraction until we end up together again. The thoughts kept pummeling my brain, and I never noticed I stopped plotting the points, until I felt a strong hand on my back and people calling my name.

I shook my head like I was woken from a dream. "Sorry, what's the next one?"

"Are you okay?" Jason asked with his hand still on my back.

I looked him in the eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. What's the next point?"

Jason read off the rest of the points and I finished plotting them, and when I was done, I picked up the ruler and connected the points which when completed created a giant pentagram with each address being either a point of the star or the points where the lines crossed over. I tossed the ruler and pen to the side and everyone stared at the map as I said, "And there we have it. The locations of ten hexes."

"How did you figure that out?" Ezra asked.

I shrugged. "My dad is a given. Mona was my best friend who betrayed me, hit me with a car, tried to kill my friends, and made my life difficult as hell even though I visited her every day in Radley. My mom because she kept this huge secret from me for as long as I've been alive. Radley because of all my time visiting there we should all be surprised I wasn't the one who became a patient. Spencer and Ali's yards because their families are entwined, and that's where everything began. And Ali used to bully me mercilessly which has greatly changed, and Spencer is dating Caleb which I am learning to become okay with. Then there's the police station where I was charged and convicted of Mona's false murder along with Ali. The school where we eventually became ostracized from our own peers. Emily's house where we fought because I got drunk at her mom's dinner for Ali because I was dealing with a lot of emotions and the others bailed and my issues couldn't be bothered to be acknowledged until we reach Aria's house where I tell her about her mom's skeevy fiancé making two undesired passes at me and she blamed me because of my drinking, all of which I promise I am past now. Well . . . except the drinking. But then we reach the cemetery because I have had to attend way too many funerals and memorials for people in my teens and my early twenties all in this town." I spread out my hands over the map. "There you go, just the bullet points of my emotional trauma laid all out before you on a map."

I felt Jason's hand rest against my back, and I felt calm warmth radiate through me.

"Okay, so there are ten in all." Toby began. "I think we should each search for one of them."

I nodded. "Yeah, but if you find them, don't move them until I talk more with my mom. We want to limit any possibility that we can cause more problems."

"Okay, let's split up in teams now, and we can begin to search the properties." Spencer suggested. "Ali and I can cover our house line and the barn."

"I'll go by myself to the station and search there." Toby offered.

"Ezra, do you want to come search my house with me?" Aria asked.

"Sure." He agreed.

"Hanna, do you want me to go back to your hotel room at Radley with you?" Caleb asked.

I hesitated for only a second before resting a hand on Jason's arm and replying, "Thanks, but I was going to see if Jason would take me. He promised me food earlier."

"Okay." Caleb nodded.

"You can come help me, Caleb." Emily offered.

Everyone agreed to meet back at Alison's house when we were done so we could get ready to return to my mom's house, and then we split up into our respective teams.


	11. Chapter 11

" _Do you remember when we first met?" "I thought I had wandered into a dream."_

– _J.R.R. Tolkien_

I closed the door to the hotel room behind us, and Jason sat the food on the coffee table and threw his jacket over the back of the couch. I watched him in silence for a moment, and he lifted his head to look at me.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he took a step toward me.

I paused and counted my heart beats, but then I forced myself to stop and looked at my hands before looking back up at him. "What if I want you to be selfish? And what if I want the pressure?"

He stopped walking toward me and just watched me. "Hanna, I can't-."

"I'm not using you, if that's what you think." I spat out. "I know I was wrong to leave like I did. I just . . . everyone has always left me except my mom. I was feeling myself getting attached to you and having feelings, and I just had to get out before it got too heavy because I just thought that you'd leave just like everyone else. And I didn't know how to talk or say that. I didn't think it would matter that I left because no one seemed all that bothered by leaving me before, so I figured no one would be bothered by me being the one to leave. I was wrong for that. I didn't think about the fact that you have dealt with similar things and could possibly be the only person to understand me or that you could be hurt too. I was acting selfish, and I'm sorry."

"Thank you," he nodded and stepped closer again. "But Hanna, I-."

"Jason, look I like you a lot. You're kind and smart, and you get me in a way that no one has. I don't care if everyone asks questions or someone is upset about us because like you said, we're adults, and I promise not to run away again, unless it's another maniac family member of yours trying to kill me. And I promise I'm not trying to use you to make my ex jealous. He's with one of my best friends now, and yes it hurts but we were together through a lot and he was the last person I thought would ever leave me but he did and it's going to hurt for awhile and there's nothing I can do to change that. But at the same time I still really like you, and I think we owe it to ourselves to finally do what we want and not give a shit about what anybody else says or thinks." I took a deep breath and let it out before repeating my earlier sentiment, "Now, it's up to you. What if I want the pressure and I want you to be selfish?"

Jason crossed the few feet that was left between us, and he took my face in his palms and he kissed me in such a deep way that I felt my whole body was on fire. He wrapped one of his strong arms around my waist and lifted me against him, causing a sharp squeak of a breath escape from me as he held me tight and carried me into the bed room where we proceeded to wrap up in each other and be completely and utterly selfish together.


	12. Chapter 12

_Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it wants. The way it stops and starts. –Edgar Allan Poe_

There are rare moments of pure perfection in everyone's life. They happen when you least expect them, and you never quite know what to do with them. It would be so easy for you, you think, to just give up the rest of the world and stay right there, but alas, as with everyone else and their perfect moments of beauty, you resolve yourself to continue on taking care of your responsibilities, leaving a dull ache in your chest, a longing to return to that moment you can never get back. That was the only way to describe every second in the hotel room with Jason.

Every second we remained in the hotel room, keeping our hands to ourselves seemed all but impossible. It was a moment we lived in that was transfixed like a perpetual first kiss, with all the magic and beauty of fresh love that you never wanted to see die. He left for an instant just to grab our food from the coffee table, and when he returned I could do nothing but kiss him once more and pull him to me. He let the food containers fall roughly to the side table, and he wrapped his arms around me and laid me back. The kiss grew more impassioned, and my hands tangled in his hair. He broke from me for only a moment and looked down at me. He kissed me again, a short but just as fulfilling kiss, and he looked at me with an internal argument warring behind his eyes. Another kiss and another look.

"We should eat." He finally admitted.

I traced my hands around his collarbone to rest on the back of his neck. "I'm not hungry." I pulled him to me for another kiss.

He smiled against my lips and kissed me again. "You'll regret not eating later."

I shook my head and kissed him again before adding. "I don't care. It takes up time I don't want to lose."

His lips entangled with mine again, and we moved back on the bed so he could join me. He held me close and his hand slipped down my bare side and rested against the back of my thigh. He broke apart from me again, and I could see the fight written all over his handsome face. "We have to. I don't want to either, but when everything is said and done, we'll have as much time as we want, as long as you still want it."

"Of course I'll want it." I rested my hands against his muscular chest. "There' nothing I want more."

He kissed me and helped me sit up with him, and he pulled the sheets across us so we could sit comfortably while we ate. What was left of our moment was filled with conversation, longing looks, and light kisses. And when the moment came to an end, we pulled our clothes back on, I felt a delightful ache through my chest that I was entirely certain that we had more lying ahead regardless of what occurred before the end of our time limit. Even so, the thought of wasting any moment felt blasphemous, and I looked around at my luggage.

"Hey, Jason?" My voice called from the bedroom before I realized what I was doing.

"Yeah?" He stepped into the doorway.

"Would you be opposed to me packing up my stuff here and staying with you at Ali's during this?" I asked.

A faint smile played across his lips. "Of course not. Let's look for the hex, and then I'll help carry your stuff down to my car."

I smiled and hugged him and pressed a kiss to his lips. He kissed me back and it quickly turned more heated. We reluctantly parted and he chuckled before releasing me.


	13. Chapter 13

_Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark. –Ayn Rand_

Jason and I had my room torn apart and couldn't find anything by the time my phone rang. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and saw Toby's name on my phone screen. I answered it and put him on speakerphone.

"Hey, Toby. Find anything?" I asked.

"Nope. I checked everywhere I could think of that you'd been, including your holding cell and the transport van." He sighed. "I don't know where else to look."

I sighed and dropped my free hand to my side. "I don't know either. We're not having any luck here."

"Well," Jason tucked his hands in his pockets. "Maybe it's not about a spot that's specifically attached to you. Like the building is a general location, but the exact spot might not be."

"What do you mean?" Toby's voice came clear over the phone.

"Well think about it," Jason focused his attention on me as he continued to speak. "This girl, whoever she is, wants to affect everyone in the town, wherever the hex bags are located probably have to be in a good place to do that, a place people can't easily access and disrupt."

"Like a basement?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah or a locked room or even a wall or something like that." Jason nodded.

"That makes sense," Toby said. "Let me go see if I can get down in the basement, and then I'll let you know if I find anything."  
"Thanks." I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "We'll see if we can get a copy of the building plans and maybe we'll be able to find something."

I hung up and looked to Jason. "My mom will probably have the plans in her office somewhere. I can get us in there."

"How?" He asked.

I smiled and went to my bathroom and pulled a few bobby pins from a toiletry bag and joined him back in the living room. I held out my hand and showed him the bobby pins, "I can pick the lock."

"Since when do you know how to do that?" He asked and followed me out of the room and into the hallway.

I shrugged and lead the way to my mom's office. "Since I figured it'd be a helpful skill with the way my high school years went."

The hotel was mostly empty due to most people being at the hospital waiting for treatment, so we didn't bother with discretion. When we reached the office, I bent the bobby pins and prodded the locks until the tumblers clicked back, and we let ourselves in the office. We searched through the drawers in her desk and the filing cabinets until I found a tube of papers tucked in the corner between the wall and filing cabinet. I pulled the papers out and unrolled them on her desk, and we looked through them. We looked over it until I noticed the way the rooms were set up.

"This isn't right." I scrunched my brow and pointed to the room on the top floor. "Look, there are no words or indicators. All of the rooms are empty."

"Maybe we're looking at the wrong page." He flipped the page over and revealed the next page. More empty rooms. He flipped again to reveal more empty rooms. "This doesn't make any sense."

"Why is nothing marked on here?" I rubbed my temples. "That bitch must've wiped it. How the hell are we supposed to find it now?"

"All we need to know is if there's a basement or something most people can't reach." Jason leaned forward and searched the pages.

"What about the roof?" I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Do you think it's still the same way to get there?"

"I don't see why not." He looked up at me over the blueprints, without standing straight.

"Well, let's go."

We left the room and I led the way back through the building to the stairwell, and we climbed until we reached the roof entrance. We stepped out onto the roof just as the sun was dipping low in the sky, and we each took a side and searched.

"Hanna!" Jason called out after what couldn't have been more than four minutes. "I think I found it."

I jogged over to him, and he pointed inside the air vent where a small black fabric bag hung from a black rope, dangling in the breeze. "That has to be it."

I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of the hex bag and sent it in the group message to the others adding, _Jason found the one here._

At the same time, Toby replied with a message of the hex bag hanging on a pipe in the unfinished basement of the police station. Another picture arrived in the message from Spencer of a hex bag hanging in a tree on the property line of her and Alison's home.

I looked up at Jason. "That's three found. That's seven more to go."

"It doesn't look like Emily and Caleb found the other yet or Aria and Ezra." Jason replied.

"They will." I tucked my phone back in my pocket. "Let's get my stuff and get back to Spencer's.

 **A/N:** I appreciate the positive reviews and feedback so far! Thank you so much! I'm glad you all like it! Tbh, I may end up rewriting this chapter because I was a little in a rush writing it. In the meantime, if you like the Jason  & Hanna dynamic, you might be interested in checking out my other fanfic Blood for Blood here: s/11842785/1/Blood-for-Blood . It's a crossover fic between Buffy and PLL. Also, to the person who guessed what other show this one will eventually be crossed with, you're right! It doesn't become a full crossover for a while though. Anyways, thanks for the feedback! I'll keep updating.


	14. Chapter 14

_She is only just learning to speak for her dreams, and her voice sounds like starlight with teeth. – Morgan Nikola Wren_

Darkness had already overtaken the town by the time we reached Spencer's house. Spencer, Alison, and Toby met us in the driveway just as Aria, Ezra, Caleb, and Emily pulled up behind us in their respective vehicles. Everyone clustered around us, and Spencer opened her mouth to speak but then her words evaporated like mist as her eyes lay on the suitcases in the backseat of Jason's car.

"Hanna, what's going on?" Spencer nodded towards my luggage.

I pressed my lips together and addressed Alison. "I was wondering if you'd mind me staying at your place for now?"

"Of course not. Not at all." Ali shook her head. "Stay as long as you like."

"What's wrong with your suite?" Aria asked.

"Nothing, I just-." I began.

"It can wait until later." Jason interrupted from behind me.

I held up a hand. "No, it's fine. They can know."

"Know what?" Emily's eyes creased at the corners with worry.

I glanced up at Jason before looking back at my friends. "We're seeing each other."

"What?" Spencer shouted.

"Like _seeing-seeing_ each other?" Aria arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes."

"Since when?" Caleb furrowed his brow with heavy lines.

"It's kind of complicated," I replied.

"Aren't you engaged?" Spencer asked.

"Is she supposed to stay with the man cheating on her?" Jason's blue eyes lit up with a dark fire that was reminiscent of the passion experienced in private.

"Ali," Spencer rested a hand on Alison's shoulder. "You're okay with this?"

"Yeah, as long as they're happy and no one gets hurt, who cares?" Alison shot her and everyone else a look of derision.

"Besides we're adults, and this is our lives. We can make our own decisions." I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"Well I just want to know how long this has been going on." Aria shrugged.

"Yeah, same." Emily nodded. "And if you don't tell us now, we'll just bug you until you do."

I sighed and lowered my shoulders. "A little bit after Caleb left me, we ran into each other in New York. He bought me dinner, and he came back to my place. We were together for a few months before I realized how serious things were getting and I panicked and left him with no explanation because I was afraid that he'd leave me first like everyone else has. Then I met Jordan and everything happened with him, and then I came here and then we saw each other for the first time since I left when he showed up yesterday morning, and now I admitted my mistakes and that I still have feelings for him and he and I decided to try it again. Only this time no one will run just because they're afraid."

"Unless a psycho family member of mine is chasing her," Jason added.

I nodded and pointed upward in agreement. "That too. I'm glad that is understood. I mean I'll come back afterwards, but I hope that's understood as well."

"Of course," Jason agreed.

I addressed my friends again. "Now, I hope we're all done here, because we're through with the questions portion of our revelation."

Emily shrugged. "It works for me."

Aria nodded. "Yeah, it's like Ali said, as long as you're happy and no one is hurt, it's none of our business."

"Besides, it makes sense." Toby motioned outward with a hand. "You two do have a lot in common."

A faint smile crept across Alison's lips and I nodded and said, "I feel like I've heard that before." I took that moment to switch gears and turn to Aria and Emily. "Did you guys find the hex bags at your locations?"

Aria pulled her phone from her pocket and tapped her screen before holding it outward to me, showing a picture of a hex bag tied to what appeared to be a ceiling beam. "It's in the basement of the house."

"And the one at my house is actually tucked up in the beams of the porch roof," Emily added before I could ask.

"Okay." I nodded. "Let's all get over to my mom's and then we'll find the one in her house and she can show us how to destroy it and break the curse."

Everyone agreed. Jason and I climbed back in his car with Alison, Emily, and Toby joining us, while the Ezra, Spencer, Caleb, and Aria climbed in Spencer's car, and we all headed out for my mom's house.


End file.
